2 kinds of substrate

[John Eppenauer]

I have a 55 gallon marine aquarium. It has been cycling for almost 6 weeks,four weeks with a damsel. The rocks are not live, however there is green algae growing good on them and some brown also growing. I am eventually going to start a reef /fish system.The question I have is: I have crushed(med. and large) coral as a substrate. Can I use sand on one end of the tank,1/4, and CC on the other 3/4 of tank? And where if i can, put the sand? By live rock or away from rock/reef ?

[jessie]

you could if you wanted to. alot of people say crshed coral isnt good for a tank because it promotes the eventuallity of bad water perameters. i have seen plenty of display tanks in several stores that use crushed coral as a sustrate. if you did use it, it wouldnt really matter what part of the tank you put it in.

[plah831]

i've thought about doing this before, too, for burrowers and sandsifters to be able to get into the sand. but wouldn't vacuuming the gravel just mix it all up eventually? is there some kind of border you could put to keep the two substrates separate?

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

You may use crushed coral in your tank if you'd like, as long as you are very diligent on maintaining it. If you do not vaccumm the gravel then it is a nitrate factory and I have seen many many tanks gone downhill because of a poorly maintained gravel bed. It would be best, IMO, to go with all sand. It will also look better, too.

-Diana

[johngp]

As you are just starting out and want to get into a reef type set up I would remove the crushed coral and replace it with 4 inches of sand. This will be the corner stone of your set up and will you will reap rewards later.

One other tip is use RO water from the start, it will help with Algae problems and give you the best start possible.

[freefall582]

i started out with crushed coral and it was the BIGGEST mistake i have made with my tank. It looked great at first, but eventually turned a lovely shade of green and got very dirty. A gravel vacuum does not clean the substrate, it only picks up some detrious that gets into the cracks. My water parameters were also going down hill. Since then, I set aside a weekend (one of the most frustrating weekends of my life) and drained my 75g tank and removed all the crushed coral and replaced it with a 3"-4" sand bed. 5 months later the sand still looks great and my tank is much more stable. Best thing I ever did for my fish and the look of my tank IMO